Leroy Orange spent 17 years on death row, but he never lost faith that he would one day be a free man.

As part of an event titled “Alive After Death Row,” Orange spoke Thursday night to an audience of about 50 students and community members in Swift Hall on his view of the justice system and the death penalty.

Orange gained his freedom Jan. 10 when former Gov. George Ryan pardoned him and three other death row inmates. Orange had been imprisoned for almost two decades after being found guilty of four murders.

“I didn’t want to be pardoned. I wanted to fight my case in the courts,” Orange said. “What the government did was a blessing, but I had gotten used to fighting.”

Wearing a gray shirt and jeans, Orange spoke to the audience in hushed tones, his hands clasped behind his back.

“I’m not a writer or a speaker, so I’m not confident in explaining to you what life after death can be like,” Orange told the crowd.

Still, he attempted to describe the daily challenges he faces in adjusting to life as a free man — almost 20 years after leaving society for prison.

“Re-entering life after death is like living in a time warp where everything and everyone seems more advanced than myself,” Orange said.

Orange said he slowly is learning about new technology. Sometimes he gets in a car, locks the doors and then forgets how to get out, he told the audience. After the speech, Orange needed help using a motion-activated faucet in the restroom.

While still in prison, Orange said he tried not to get too caught up in a January announcement that Ryan might be considering his case for pardon. Orange tried not to think about the possibility so he wouldn’t feel let down if the pardon fell through, he said.

“I was actually afraid to have hope,” Orange said. “I was scared to believe that I might be pardoned.”

Orange was one of the “Illinois Death Row 10,” a group of men who claimed that police tortured them to get confessions. His case attracted attention because of his allegation that Chicago police officers, under the direction of then-police commander Jon Burge, tortured him to extract a confession. Orange said the officers put a plastic bag over his head, handcuffed him to a wall and used electric shocks.

“It was something like you might see in a movie,” he said.

Thursday’s program also featured a live phone call from fellow Death Row 10 member Ronald Kitchen, who was granted clemency in January but still remains in prison. Kitchen was convicted in 1988 on five counts of murder.

The phone call from Kitchen rang as Orange was in midsentence. Audience members grew hushed and leaned forward in their seats to better hear Kitchen’s voice through the weak connection with the prison telephone.

Austin Harvey, president of Amnesty International-NU, held a microphone to the receiver and relayed audience questions. He also alerted Kitchen that Orange was in the audience.

“How you doin’, Leroy?” Kitchen asked.

“Put my name on your visiting list!” Orange responded, smiling.

Kitchen expressed patience in waiting to be released.

“I’ve got a lot of hope, a lot of faith,” he said. “When my time’s going to come, it’s going to come.”

Kitchen commended Ryan on his choice to grant blanket clemency and said the decision has influenced the attitude of inmates.

“The mood has changed from gloomy to sunshine,” he said.

Northwestern’s Bluhm Legal Clinic and Center on Wrongful Convictions had a part in both Kitchen’s and Orange’s cases. Cathryn Crawford, one of Orange’s attorneys and an assistant clinical professor at the legal clinic, accompanied him to Thursday’s speech, sponsored by Amnesty International-NU, Chicago’s Campaign to End the Death Penalty and other groups.

Alice Kim, a representative from Chicago’s Campaign to End the Death Penalty, closed the event by reminding the audience that the fight to end the death penalty is not complete.

“It’s not just going to be a snap of our fingers,” Kim said. “It’s not that easy.”

Crawford said that although it is “still sort of surreal” to see her former client speaking to groups as a free man, she enjoys watching Orange interact with an audience.

“He is just as effective at speaking to a group of people as he is one-on-one,” she said.

After the speech, Orange told The Daily that he hoped his story will stick with the audience.

“I’m a speaker who at all times tries to tell the truth,” he said. “And if it affects someone in a positive way, I’m grateful for that.”